Intermediate Zeitgeists
Zeitgeists are echoes in the Astral of the intense focus and attention on some particular event. They are no more than tangles of thoughts, ideas, and emotions, but they developed into minds of their own, thoughts thinking about themselves. They are tightly connected to history, the worlds and peoples who first thought them, and can discuss little else. During a seance, participants can attempt to learn from them, but they are frustratingly inconsistent and incoherent. Thoughts may come from myriad languages, including those have been dead for ages—or even come from some other world entirely, completely foreign to you. The GM may allow skill checks to persuade a zeitgeist to be more helpful, or to parse the babbling and unknown languages, but this occurs solely at his discretion. Often times, the zeitgeists simply are not capable of communicating anything useful. Otherwise, the only useful thing to be done during a seance is for an empath to forge contracts with zeitgeists. Below are descriptions of what happens when one does. Zeitgeist Descriptions The introduction to zeitgeists is their name and epithet, along with a description of the zeitgeist and its origins. The descriptions vary from histories to quotes stated during or about the event. Associated Events: '''Each zeitgeist reflects a singular event, but history’s tendency to repeat itself reinforces and strengthens the zeitgeist when similar events occur. Sometimes, the zeitgeist does not even represent the first such event; some great development in an area subsumed any previous zeitgeist. Empaths may be able to learn of such events during seances, even from zeitgeists they do not or cannot contract with. '''Compulsion: '''Empaths contracted with the zeitgeist must obey this compulsion or risk psychic enervation. '''Goal: '''Zeitgeists whose goal an empath has completed also grant her a spirit surge as part of her contract. '''Seance Boon: '''An empaths gains this boon, applying her spirit bonus to a pair of skills, when she contracts with the zeitgeist. If she has the collective seance ability, the members of her collective also gain it, adding her spirit bonus to their skill checks. '''Spirit Power: '''An empath contracted with the zeitgeist gains this spirit power. The spirit powers of lesser zeitgeists are treated as lesser spirit powers, the spirit powers of intermediate zeitgeists are treated as intermediate spirit powers, and so on. '''Psionic Powers: '''An empath contracted with the zeitgeist treats these powers as powers known (excepting those above her maximum power level). '''Aicanique, the Eternal Martyrdom Somewhere, tales say, a pharaoh's kingdom was beset by plague. A pharaoh is her land and the land is her: to save the land, she took the plague into herself, sacrificing herself and binding it within her mummified corpse, animated to eternally hold it safely away from her people. Some scholars suggest that this event spawned not only the zeitgeist, but also affected mummies from then on, and this is the origin of mummy rot. Associated Events: '''Mass deaths, mass resurrections, or mass reanimations as undead. '''Compulsion: '''Defend the dignity of undeath. '''Goal: '''Use ''guide the willing ''or ''release death’s hold ''on a willing creature. '''Seance Boon: '''Your spirit bonus applies on Diplomacy and Knowledge (religion) checks. '''Spirit Power: '''With undead who are mindless or with whom you cannot communicate, you can communicate in the same way a ranger can with animals using wild empathy, though you still use an actual Diplomacy check to do so. With this spirit power, undead that are not under someone’s control usually start indifferent towards you and your party. As a standard action, you can make an opposed Charisma check against anyone within 120 feet who controls an undead creature; if you succeed, you break their control over one undead creature (but do not gain control yourself). You may apply your spirit bonus on this Charisma check. '''Psionic Powers* * 1st: Guide the Willing – End the life of a willing creature. * 1st: Shunning of the Material – Make an object ethereal. * 2nd: Clutching the Shroud – You are treated as undead for the purposes of effcts. * 3rd: Release Death’s Hold – Turn an undead creature into a living creature. * 4th: Death Urge, Blackstock's – Implant a self-destructive compulsion. *Aicanique grants two 1st-level powers and one 2nd-level power, instead of the normal two 2nd-level powers. Charade, the Great and Powerful In days of old, when primitive peoples were first discovering and worshiping gods, there was a conman, name lost to time, who convinced an entire land that he was not just a god, but the greatest and most powerful god there was. When he was finally revealed, and the people learned of his fraud, the shock and dismay created the zeitgeist we know today. Associated Events: 'A false idol revealed for what it is. '''Compulsion: '''Do everything you can to minimize your own importance while maximizing the impression of your alternate persona. '''Goal: '''Convince someone that your alternate persona is a deity. '''Seance Boon: '''Your spirit bonus applies on Bluff and Disguise checks. '''Spirit Power: '''When you contract with Charade, the Great and Powerful, you create an alternate persona for yourself. For the purposes of effects that seek information about you, such as many clairsentience powers and divination spells, this persona has its own race, class, alignment, surface thoughts, magic auras, and so on. While disguised as this persona and acting in character, you may make a Disguise check whenever targeted by such an effect, opposed by the originator of the effect’s Sense Motive check. If win the opposed check, the originator of the effect receives information about your alternate persona and not about you. You may apply your spirit bonus on this Disguise check. Finally, you gain an alternative use for ''cloud mind: instead of erasing your presence in the target’s mind, you can replace yourself in the target’s mind with your alternate persona, or replace your alternate persona with yourself. '''Psionic Powers * 2nd: Cloud Mind – You erase knowledge of your presence from the target’s mind. * 2nd: False Future – Show the target incorrect glimpses into the future, moving them 5 feet. * 3rd: Escape Detection ''– You become difficult to detect with clairsentience powers. * '''4th:' Sensory Cascade – Trigger a dazing cascade of the senses in the target. Hivemind, the Futility of Resistance Somewhere in the multiverse exists a great collective, so aligned in purpose and thought that the psychic echoes of their will are clear even to those of us who know them not. Like a harbinger of doom, this zeitgeist reflects the formation of that hivemind, and of the death of the individuality of every mind added to it. Associated Events: 'Each addition of a new mind to the hivemind bolsters its zeitgeist as well as itself. '''Compulsion: '''Do not dissent. '''Goal: '''Pressure dissenters to fall in line. '''Seance Boon: '''Your spirit bonus applies on Diplomacy and Sense Motive checks. '''Spirit Power: '''You gain one tactician strategy (see the tactician class in Chapter 2 of ''Ultimate Psionics) of your choice when you make your contract with Hivemind, the Futility of Resistance. You may use it a number of times equal to your spirit bonus over the course of the contract. Each new contract may involve new strategies and a new pool of uses. '''Psionic Powers * 2nd: Empathic Condition Relief ''– You relieve a target’s condition. * '''2nd:' Share Pain ''– Willing subject takes some damage. * '''3rd:' Withstand as One – You and another share the best saving throws between you. * 4th: Psychic Reformation – Subject can choose skills, feats, and powers anew for previous levels. Iron Eye, the Broadcast Strange, rectangular scrying lenses have become ubiquitous on one world, captivating audiences with the stories and information they show. Groups discuss events in the dramas, speculate on future episodes, and generally obsess over the images they see. With all that attention, it is little surprise that the echoes of that communal preoccupation have formed a zeitgeist. Associated Events: 'Any story or drama that captures the attention of a significant population. '''Compulsion: '''If there is any knowledge only you have, keep secret at least one fact that those around you might want to do know. '''Goal: '''Reveal a secret at an especially dramatic moment. '''Seance Boon: '''Your spirit bonus applies on Bluff and Perform checks. '''Spirit Power: '''You can create an illusion of anything you can perceive. This functions like ''major image, except that what appears in the illusion must be something you can currently perceive. It may contain any sensory information that you perceive. This illusion may be placed within long range (400 feet + 40 feet per empath level) of any member of your collective, or you may project the image through a remote viewing, at up to close range (25 feet + 5 feet per 2 empath levels) from the sensor. You can also memorize scenes with one Autohypnosis check to memorize (DC 15) per round, and then replay the entire memorized scene with this ability with another Autohypnosis check (also DC 15). A failed check to memorize ends that particular memorized recording, but you can start a new one to play back-to-back with the first on the following round. '''Psionic Powers * 2nd: Clairvoyant Sense, Dyne's ''– See and hear a distant location. * '''2nd:' Missive, Mass – You send a one-way telepathic message to an area. * 3rd: Ubiquitous Vision ''– You have all-around vision. * '''4th:' Remote Viewing – See, hear, and potentially interact with subjects at a distance. Metus, the Ceaseless Paranoia Predatory shapeshifters breed a special kind of fear. Nothing and no one can be trusted, dread permeates an entire society. So it was with the city of Metus, once a beautiful city, which when beset by such predators became so enmeshed in fear that people move only in small groups, trusting each other barely more than strangers, and barricade themselves in whenever possible. They became so permeated with fear that they began to worship it, the greatest power in their lives. Associated Events: '''Any terror lurking among a populace, one of its own secretly hunting them down one-by-one. '''Compulsion: '''Hunt your own food; accept not the leftovers of others. '''Goal: '''Kill and eat a creature with at least 5 Intelligence. '''Seance Boon: '''Your spirit bonus applies on Intimidate and Survival checks. '''Spirit Power: '''Whenever you manifest a power of the Psychometabolism discipline on any member of your collective (including yourself), creatures within 10 feet of you who are not part of your collective must succeed at a Will save (DC 10 + 1/2 your empath level + your Charisma modifier) or become frightened of the target of the Psychometabolism power for a number of rounds equal to your spirit power. Whether they succeed or fail on this save, they are immune to this effect, even from other targets receiving different Psychometabolism powers, for one hour. '''Psionic Powers * 2nd: Animal Affinity, Lanis's – Gain a +4 bonus to one ability. * 2nd: Metamorphosis, Minor – Change your physical form to a minor degree. * 3rd: Metamorphosis – Change your physical form. * 4th: Battle Transformation, Galen's – You gain combat bonuses. Numquam, the Lost Moment None know why, or when, or where, or how, but a moment—it could only have been a moment—has been excised from the multiverse. What had happened in that moment, what was undone by excising it, can only be speculation, but the psychic turmoil of every existing mind losing that moment can still be felt. Associated Events: '''The removal of a moment from history, though it’s unlikely to have happened twice. '''Compulsion: '''Never break objects. '''Goal: '''Save an important, dangerous object from destruction. '''Seance Boon: '''Your spirit bonus applies on Craft and Disable Device checks. '''Spirit Power: '''When you use a psychoportation power to teleport yourself (and others, if appropriate), you may add a temporal component to the power, as if all of the subjects were also subject to a time hop effect. You may choose the duration of this time hop effect, but it may not be longer than a number of rounds equal to your spirit bonus. '''Psionic Powers * 2nd: Dimension Swap – You and an ally switch places. * 2nd: Time Hop – Subject hops forward in time 1 round/level. * 3rd: Dimension Slide – Teleports you a very short distance. * 4th: Fold Space – Teleports you and touched allies a short distance. Siderea, the Ether Nova Ether novas, massive explosions of potential and wonder, occur as massive collections of possibility in the Ethereal collapse in on themselves. Siderea is the memory of the awe, the fascination, and the terror of one such collapse. The light, force, and possibility of that moment inspired a thousand worlds—at the cost of the complete destruction of another. Associated Events: 'Natural disasters on colossal scales, that nonetheless inspire with their might and terrible beauty. '''Compulsion: '''You perceive all others as acting in awe of you, even if they are not, even if you do not believe yourself worthy of such awe. You can correct your perception for a number of minutes equal to your spirit bonus by risking enervation. '''Goal: '''Be worshiped by someone who did not know you when you started your contract. '''Seance Boon: '''Your spirit bonus applies on Fly and Perform checks. '''Spirit Power: '''You radiate magical light, as a ''daylight spell but centered on you rather than a touched object. This effect’s spell level for the purposes of interacting with darkness effects is equal to your spirit bonus. You can suppress or resume this light as a free action. Other allies touched by this light gain a +1 morale bonus on all saving throws. You do not gain this bonus. '''Psionic Powers * 2nd: Gravitational Well – Cause the target to draw attacks toward it. * 2nd: Hustle ''– Instantly gain a move action. * '''3rd:' Concussive Onslaught – Pummel an area for 3d6 points of force damage each round. * 4th: Energy Ball – Deal 7d6 energy damage in 20-ft. radius. Category:Source: Psionics Augmented: Occult